Montrose Citizens for Responsible Growth

Saturday’s Daily Press article regarding the planning commission work session certainly presented a rosy outlook regarding what was accomplished – unanimous agreement to update the Master Plan. In contrast, this is what members of the peanut gallery witnessed:

• The majority of planning commission members wasted an inordinate amount of time whining about how the City mistreats the County.
• There was a 15% return on the master plan update survey. A 1% - 2% return rate is the norm for such surveys. Some commissioners decided that the 85% who did not respond must be just fine with the way things are. The consensus was to review the master plan, but not necessarily update it.
• Since the results from the survey were “all over the map,” they are unlikely to reference the survey in their decision-making. Information obtained from city residents is especially suspect and will likely be discarded, or “weighted.” Note to county residents: The survey that the planning commission requested cost us over $20,000.
• Steve White, Land Use Director, informed the commissioners that, while the master plan is a guiding document, zoning based upon the guidance of the master plan, will follow. Since zoning is regulatory, most of the commissioners concurred that it will not happen on their watch.
• While Steve White has a workable framework for the process of updating the master plan, the planning commission rejected his professional involvement. At this point, he is waiting (and waiting and waiting . . .) for guidance from this so-called “planning” commission.
• No follow-up meeting was scheduled to discuss a master plan update.

What are we to conclude? As long as the current planning commission membership remains, there will be no master plan update, no zoning, no planning, no management of growth and development in Montrose County. Our quality of life will suffer, our infrastructure will be strained, and our county budget will be anemic.

Looks like the planning commission, the majority of whom have ties to a few land owners and vested interests in real estate and development, are in charge of the Montrose County land use policy. And, what is that land use policy? It is to maximize short-term financial gain for a few players in this county and let the rest of us, and the future of this county, be damned.

Exactly who is in charge here? Is it our elected BOCC? Or, is it their appointees who show no inclination to exercise good stewardship over our county lands and resources?

Linda Orcutt
Montrose

Daily Press Editorial
February 11, 2007
Bill Patterson, Western Colorado Congress

The fact that the Montrose County Planning Commission is developing a questionnaire after months of public meetings seems ill timed at best.

It’s not that a supplementary questionnaire is a bad idea, but it should have been developed and implemented months ago. At this stage, it can easily slow the process to aid a long overdue master plan update.

Questionnaires take time and resources. The questionnaire would go out to roughly 11,400 county residents, but why not make it available to everyone? Planning Commission member Bill Fritz has also said that if 2,500 people returned questionnaires (22 percent return), he’d consider it a good turnout. Generally, a 7 percent return can be expected for any survey â€â€? and that’s considered a good response. Read the rest of this entry »

During the past several years the obvious, indiscriminate growth within Montrose County has become an increasingly important and contentious issue. How do we best balance competing interests and still manage the complex problems associated with our county’s “popularity”?

Fortunately, our county already possesses such a document called the MASTER PLAN, which was painstakingly created several years ago to provide just such guidance and direction. (A copy is available from the county land use office, or on the Montrose County Web site.

Read the rest of this entry »

“It is predicted that Montrose could be as large as Grand Junction in 20 or 30 years. Rather than resign ourselves to the idea that this growth is inevitable, I believe we need to take steps now to move toward more sweeping, long-term structural changes.” To this end, Kevin Williams offers insight into how Montrose citizens can control growth within their county with six ways to use more democracy “to control the growth machine in Montrose County, which by no means represent all the possibilities. I have included options that apply to the city and county because both are major players and neither one alone can solve the growth problems we face.”

Read the full article >>>

Access the print version >>>

A message from “The Folks,� who speak on behalf of private citizens of Montrose County and well over 250 voters in this County, regarding the issue of public notification and public input. There is concern that, in spite of serious issues raised by a large number of citizens, developments are approved simply because they “substantially comply� with the regulations. Public input is largely disregarded, especially in regard to subdivision regulations. Read details in the full document version.

Read full document >>>

Access print version >>>